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Continued from page 2

“From the day Ryan arrived in D.C. as a 23 year old player, I always knew he would be a head coach someday.” Kevin Payne

Perhaps Nelsen didn’t though, otherwise how do you explain a 35 year-old prospective coach who has not even bothered to get any coaching badges?

"I spoke to Paul this weekend. It was really my decision, we felt we needed to move in a different direction and we needed to change the culture around the club and the way we want to do things." Kevin Payne commenting on Paul Mariner’s firing.

Some might say that “different direction” has been used so many times by Toronto FC that there are no new paths left to follow.

"For me, TFC is a shining light in terms of passion and loyalty that the fans have and how the club is run. What the fans can know is that the team I put out will match that and some. We’ll make TFC, my team, a very hard team, a very combative team that will never give up and never fall over for any team. That’s the standard and the base that you go from." Ryan Nelsen at the press conference announcing his appointment.

What’s the chances that Nelsen was handed notes used previously by Mo Johnston, John Carver, Preki and Paul Mariner? All sounds very familiar.

“It was interesting because he called me back a couple of days later … and he proceeded to run down the entire roster of Toronto FC, what everybody made. He knew all of the stats of how many games the team had played in the last two years, how many games they had won, how many goals they had surrendered. He had watched games on video and was telling me how many times one pass beat the back four. That’s the kind of guy he is. When he gets into something, he really, really gets into it.”Kevin Payne tries to explain why Ryan Nelsen got the job.

It seems that Kevin Payne is easily impressed – 20,000 Toronto FC fans could have offered up much the same without the two day respite and help from the internet.